Fluidic systems are used in a variety of areas including biochemical analysis, medical diagnostics, analytical chemistry, chemical synthesis, and environmental monitoring. Microfluidic systems provide certain advantages in acquiring chemical and biological information. For example, microfluidic systems permit complicated processes to be carried out using small amounts of reagents.
In certain diagnostic equipment and systems, large numbers of various sized bottles of different liquid reagents are required. In these systems, liquids are typically stored in conventional bottles with a needle pierceable septum at one end. Fluids can be extracted from these bottles in several ways. For example, the septum can be pierced with a short or a long needle. The long needle is designed to reach the bottom of the bottle to extract the liquid, and the short needle provides an air vent to replace the liquid with air as it is extracted from the bottle. A long needle causes safety concerns and requires complex mechanisms to protect and guide into the bottle. Another example of a method for extracting the liquid from these bottles is to provide a significant air volume above the liquid to allow for low vacuum level build-up while extracting. This method has certain drawbacks as well because allowing even a small vacuum build-up in the bottle can introduce dispensing errors at selector valves in the liquid handling system. Furthermore, liquid storage systems and interfaces that use this method are difficult to manage.